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Comic News Roundup – October 2009 – Week 3

The Flash Hobbled?
Producer brings us up to speed on the superhero’s status.
“I was involved at one point with The Flash,” said producer Charles Roven (The Dark Knight). “And Warner Bros. came to me and said, ‘The work that you’ve been doing hasn’t yet resulted in something that any of us, including the filmmaking team, feel could be greenlit as a movie. We’re trying to accomplish something that takes into account the entire, rich DC character world, and we’d like to pull it back.”

Potential ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’ Investor Won’t Guarantee His Involvement
but according to James D. Stern, one of the two alleged investors, nothing is a certainty yet. “Yeah, I think that it would be good if people would actually talk to me before they write that sort of thing,” Stern stated. “It’s not really—I mean, I don’t know. Whether I’m involved in it or not, I don’t have any idea yet.”

Hugh Jackman Defends ‘Wolverine’ To Katie Couric, Discusses Plans For Japan Sequel
CBS News anchor Katie Couric confessed she’s not exactly a fan of Wolverine. But Jackman insisted that there are plenty of reasons that Couric would have a good time with the “Wolverine” franchise. “Why would you miss [out on] it?” he argued. “A little bit of nudity, I get all of my rage issues out… any rage issues I have are gone! Yeah, you do [have fun]. I wouldn’t make them otherwise.” [Video]

Thomas Jane Says Perfect ‘Punisher’ Movie Is More ‘Death Wish,’ Less ‘Spider-Man’
“My interest has always been based more in reality than in superhero fiction, and with the original ‘Punisher’ I very much pushed them to try to make a movie that was more like ‘Death Wish’ or ‘Taxi Driver’ than ‘Spider-Man,’” Jane said. “The strengths of ‘The Punisher’ that I did lie in the reality that we were able to bring to the character, and the weaknesses of ‘The Punisher’ I did were all based on people trying to make this a ‘comic book movie’—with funny characters and goofball s–t that has no place in a ‘Punisher’ film.”

‘Venom’ to be written and possibly directed by Gary Ross
Gary Ross is writing “Venom,” Columbia’s “Spider-Man” spinoff based on one of the villains from “Spider-Man 3,” as a potential directing vehicle. Ross is already writing “Spider-Man 4” for the studio.

Brian Bendis Offers Updates On ‘Powers’ TV Series, ‘Thor’ And ‘Avengers’ Movies
Bendis revealed that while the “Powers” TV pilot hasn’t yet been given the green light to shoot, a showrunner and a director are firmly on board. “Kevin Falls is our showrunner,” said Bendis. “[He] is the Emmy award-winning producer of ‘West Wing’ and ‘Sports Night.’ Much higher up on the food chain than I thought we were going to get. Our director is Michael Dinner, who directed the ‘Bionic Woman’ pilot and ‘Sons of Anarchy.’”

“Zombie Cop” Graphic Novel Appears on CSI
The original graphic novel Zombie Cop (Image Comics/Shadowline, January 2009) will make a featured appearance on the hit CBS TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It will be seen during the opening teaser segment, being read in a coffee shop when real police gunfire breaks out. Zombie Cop writer Jeff Mariotte said, “The show’s props department got in touch with Image Comics a couple of months ago, asking permission to use the book in an upcoming episode. Image put them in touch with me, and of course I agreed. By the end of that week, the episode had been shot.”

‘Gravel’ comics bound for film adaptation
Legendary Pictures is developing a feature adaptation of the Warren Ellis comic book property “Gravel.” Avatar Press publishes the ongoing series, which blends espionage and dark fantasy in tracking the modern-day exploits of British “combat magician” William Gravel. Ellis (“Planetary”) first introduced the character in a 1999 limited series of graphic novels entitled “Strange Kiss.”

More Details On the Ross “Venom” Film
The Venom, an arch enemy of the web-slinger in the Marvel Comics series, will be transformed into an anti-hero who becomes a defender of the innocent. Even though Marvel Entertainment was just acquired by Disney in a $4 billion deal, Columbia Pictures is able to turn Venom loose in a film because the studio holds rights in perpetuity not only to Spider-Man but the villains in his universe.

‘Cowboys And Aliens’ Producers Ready To Begin ‘Space Western’ With Jon Favreau After ‘Iron Man 2′
“We just started and we’re getting along really well [with Favreau],” said screenwriter Roberto Orci. “We’ve sent ourselves back to school and we’re watching Westerns together and analyzing them. We’re just getting into it.”

Sam Raimi Hopes To Start Shooting ‘Spider-Man 4′ In March 2010
“The production is starting to come together,” Raimi told us. “I’ve got a production designer who is starting to design the sets and the environments that the picture will take place in. We just brought aboard Scott Stokdyk as one of the two visual effects supervisors, and I worked with him on all three ‘Spider-man’ pictures.”

FOX & Bagge Developing Bradleys Pilot
Peter Bagge has a development deal with FOX for THE BRADLEYS and the network has just ordered a pilot. Bagge has a pilot script deal with FOX for an animated prime time series featuring The Bradleys, a spoof on dysfunctional families, apparently based on Bagge’s own family.

Singer says he may make another ‘X-Men’ movie
“I’m still looking to possibly returning to the ‘X-Men’ franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it.” Singer said he enjoyed making science fiction and fantasy movies because they allowed him to discuss serious issues through entertainment. He said the “X-Men” series, which follows a group of mutants with superpowers who struggle to fit in with humans, is about tolerance and social structures. “The excitement about working in science fiction and fantasy is — the stories, if they are good, are about the human condition,” Singer said.

Imagi hitches rocket to ‘Astro Boy’
Success of animated film could give house new life, sequel
“Astro Boy II” could soon be in the works if all goes well with this week’s release of the animated superhero movie “Astro Boy.” That would also spell a new lease on life for its production house Imagi and could redefine the concept of co-production in Asia.

Sam Raimi Talks ‘Spider-Man 4′ Villains!
“What we’re trying to do right now is really understand the journey Peter is going to go on this time and have the villain maybe be a counter to that growth, something that he has to overcome,” Raimi said. “Or maybe he has to grow in a way to overcome the villain, because there always seem to be stories of coming of age, of a young man growing up and learning things about life, so once we are identifying the exact movement that Peter has to grow to, I think the villain—and we’re trying this right now; we’re trying to choose a villain based on who would be the proper counter to that growth, so we really have dramatic conflict.”

Meanwhile, Back at The Hall of Justice…

The Fine Print

This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.

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About The Author

Scott From LA

Scott is an art director, writer and comics creator living in Los Angeles. He has been a pop culture maven from a very young age. His very first job was as a manager of a comic book store. He spent several years working in a video store, and yes, we are talking VHS tapes. A student of literature and Writing, he brings his obsessive love of comic book trivia, movie history and science fiction/fantasy writing to bear on the work he does for CoolShite.

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